Familiar Diversions

I finished this about four months ago and just realized that I never wrote a review for it. Oops. All it took was starting a completely different cozy mystery series starring a librarian to remind me.

When Lindsey attempts to deliver books to a couple of her most reclusive library patrons, Stewart and Peter Rosen, she and Sully discover that Peter has been killed. Stewart is missing and seems to be the most likely suspect in Peter's murder. Lindsey can't imagine him having done it, however, and is concerned that Stewart is in danger. (And that is, unfortunately, about as much as I can remember of the book's overall plot. There was also a subplot involving Beth and a worryingly popular male children's librarian.)

I was not happy with the previous book in the series, to put it mildly. A Likely Story thankfully scaled back on one of my least favorite aspects of the series, the love triangle, although it sadly didn't do away with it. Robbie spent most of the book out of the picture, on a mysterious trip he didn't talk about much. Not that he needed to - it was painfully obvious that he was finally getting a divorce, so that Lindsey's excuse for not choosing him over Sully would no longer be an issue. It was so obvious that I actually thought Lindsey was purposely not commenting on it and wondered why she was stringing Robbie along, but in the end I think she truly didn't realize. Which made her seem like a bit of an idiot.

Since McKinlay for some reason chose not to end the love triangle once and for all, despite Lindsey's clear preference for Sully over Robbie, I imagine it'll rear its ugly head yet again in the next book. I'm not sure I want to deal with that. There are lots of other cozy mystery series starring librarians that I could be reading instead.

It's really too bad, because this book was an improvement over the previous one on the mystery front as well. I loved the crime scene, Stewart and Peter's house. It was amazing, crammed with all the stuff they'd collected over the years, with elaborate hidden tunnels and deadly booby traps. The chase scene in the tunnels was excellent.

If I continue this series, it'll be because my coworker handed me the next book and I couldn't bring myself to say no. The characters are okay, and I like the recipes in the back, but this love triangle shouldn't have survived longer than one book. It wasn't just that Robbie was married, but also that he allowed Lindsey to think he'd been killed. I mean, come on.

Extras:

• "An Unlikely Meeting," a bonus short story in which Lindsey is supposed to interview a candidate to replace Ann Marie at the circulation desk. I'm vaguely curious about how well Paula Turner and Ms. Cole will get along. Curious enough to read the next book? Eh.
• The Briar Creek Library guide to crafternoons
• Readers guide for The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
• Crafting instructions: Paper flowers created from scrap paper
• A recipe for Beth's Irish soda bread - I haven't made it, but it seems relatively easy.
• A recipe for Charlene's shepherd's pie - I haven't made this either, but it also seems relatively easy.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)